According to a study at Yale and Oxford, more active people are overall in a better mood. Researchers collected data from more than 1.2 million Americans who chose from 75 physical activities such as childcare and weight lifting. The participants were asked questions such as “How many times have you felt mentally unwell in the past 30 days, for example, due to stress, depression, or emotional problems?” The same participants were also asked about their incomes and activities.

Those who were active and regularly worked out felt bad for around 35 days a year. However, non-active participants felt bad for 18 more days than those who were active. Plus, physically active people felt as good as people who didn’t participate in sports but earned around $25,000 more a year. What these results mean is that some extra money in the bank won’t improve your mental health. In fact, according to the study, you’d need to earn quite a bit more than you do currently for your income to boost your happiness as much as exercising would.

However, that doesn’t mean we should all quit our jobs and spend our days playing soccer. Besides too much exercise being bad for your health, in order to result in better mental health, the exercise also has to take place during a particular time frame. And, according to the study, that’s no more than three hours a day, and ideally three to five 30- to 60-minute sessions per week for optimum happiness.

Also, if the exercise involved socializing, like in team sports, there was more of a positive effect on mental health, per the study.

So, while we can’t count on getting a bigger check for increased happiness, science basically re-established something we already knew — exercising means more joy and better mental health. And that is something we can all take to the bank.